AIDS experts from around the world gathered in Rome to attend a Vatican conference on AIDS HIV. The a two-day conference, organized by the Pontifical Council for Health Care Workers, looked at the role the Church plays in treating the disease and discussed ways of preventing the spread of HIV and caring for people with AIDS. Read more
The Vatican has formally suppressed the famous Santa Croce, Cistercian abbey in Rome, where a community of monks has been based for more than five centuries. The basilica had become a hub for the Friends of Santa Croce, an aristocratic group, and had been criticised for some unorthodox practices including opening a hotel with a Read more
The 19th General Assembly of Caritas International is taking place in Rome this week and is celebrating the 60th anniversary of the founding of the confederation. Over 300 delegates are working on plans to strengthen their service working alongside and on behalf of the poor. Caritas Aotearoa New Zealand is represented by Director Michael Smith Read more
The Vatican’s circular letter to all Bishops’ conferences to assist them to develop guidelines for dealing with cases of sexual abuse of minors by clergy has received a mixed reaction. The general consensus is that it is a step in the right direction but the guidelines for handling sex abuse leave a key issue unaddressed – Read more
Amnesty International has marked its 50th Anniversary by criticising the Vatican for the first time on its handling of child protection. The 2011 report, “The State of the World’s Human Rights,” examines human rights in 157 countries, and Amnesty International criticises the Vatican for failing to honour its obligations under the United nations Charter on the Read more
Vatican visitor, Archbishop Charles Chaput, obediently did what he was supposed to do: send a hard and electronic copy of his report on Bishop William Morris and the Toowoomba diocese to the dicastery for bishops, and then destroy the originals. So, reveals the National Catholic Reporter (NCR) editor at larger, Thomas Fox, in his weekend column. Read more
Gerald Arbuckle reflects on the removal of Bishop Morris: The recent, unfortunate forced early retirement of Bishop Morris of Toowoomba has caused significant disquiet, not just in Australia, but throughout the Catholic world says Gerald Arbuckle. Even the Australian Bishops’ Conference, while reaffirming their loyalty to the Pope as the head of the College of Bishops, Read more
In Rome and in Catholic circles around the world, a question is quietly circulating which only Pope Benedict XVI can answer: What to do about Cardinal Angelo Sodano, Pope John Paul II’s former Secretary of State, who still holds the post of Dean of the College of Cardinals? Were Benedict to die today, it would Read more
When the Vatican released a report last week calling man-made climate change “serious and potentially irreversible” and advocating aggressive action to curb emissions, it stirred up old divisions within the U.S. faith community over whether human activity can affect creation and what should be done about it. It is a question that divides people of Read more
Effectively addressing climate change is a moral imperative according to the Vatican’s Pontifical Academy of Sciences. The Vatican body has listed numerous examples of glacial decline around the world and the evidence linking that decline to human-caused changes in climate and air pollution. “The widespread loss of ice and snow in the world’s mountain glaciers Read more